RICHMOND, Va. - Some coastal residents applauded President Barack Obama's decision to open portions of the East Coast to oil and gas exploration as a way to create jobs and ease the country's reliance on foreign oil. Others feared marine life could be harmed by drilling or that tourists would shun a resort area if a nearby oil rig were to be involved in a spill.

Bill Dunleavy's objection, though, boils down to not wanting to look at hulking oil machinery in the distance when he goes sailing around the coastal community of Sullivans Island, S.C.

ATLANTA - U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., was admitted to Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta on Monday night after doctors found an irregular heartbeat during a routine appointment to check Isakson's progress in recovering from a bacterial infection.

At its March meeting, the Long County Board of Education named a new high school principal for the 2010-11 school year. The board didn't have to look far. Current assistant principal, Scotty Hattaway, was chosen to replace Dr. Dolores Mallard.

A Hinesville sewer break, first reported at about 10 a.m. Thursday, resulted in more than 10,000 gallons of sewage spilling into Peacock Creek, according to Scott Southwick, an environmental engineer with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division out of Savannah.

ATLANTA - A divided Georgia Supreme Court on Thursday allowed state prosecutors to seek the death penalty against an inmate who claimed his right to a speedy trial has been violated because he has waited in jail for more than two years without an attorney.

The 4-3 ruling found that a lack of funding "was not the sole factor" that delayed the trial of Jamie Ryan Weis. The opinion, written by Justice Harold Melton, concluded that Weis played a key role in delaying the trial, too, when he refused to work with new public defenders appointed to represent him.

ATLANTA - Friday marks the daylong scramble for senators and representatives to keep bills in play or see their causes put off on issues ranging from transportation, ethics, education, racial profiling and abortion.

While much of the focus this year has been on the state's looming budget crisis, senators and representatives have priorities of their own. Though Gov. Sonny Perdue has had success on water conservation, his transportation plan has stalled.

ATLANTA - A failing Savannah high school is firing its entire staff in an effort to avoid further sanctions from the state and to make the school eligible for up to $6 million in federal money, officials said Thursday.

The 200 employees at Beach High School - including the principal - will work there through the end of the year but will not be rehired for that school, said Karla Redditte, spokeswoman for the Savannah-Chatham County school district.

ATLANTA - Health officials say swine flu hospitalizations in Georgia are up to their highest level since the fall.

About 70 to 80 hospitalizations were reported in each of the past two weeks - the most since September, when a large wave of illnesses was hitting the South. The Georgia Department of Community Health released the new numbers Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - A beaming President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a historic $938 billion health-care overhaul that guarantees coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans and will touch nearly every citizen's life, presiding over the biggest shift in U.S. domestic policy since the 1960s and capping a divisive, yearlong debate that could define the November elections.

ATLANTA - Georgia waded into the polarizing debate over health care reform Monday as the Republican-controlled House rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the state's residents to opt out of federal health mandates in a sweeping bill approved by Congress.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, meanwhile, blasted the federal health legislation as a "colossal unfunded mandate" and said his office was investigating "any and all legal options to challenge" the Democratic-backed measure.

Popular film site IMDb lists "BDSM" (bondage, domination, sadism and masochism) and perversion as just a few of the many plot keywords for an upcoming movie. No, it won't be a video-only release with brown paper wrapping. The movie will be released on the big screen at your local movie theater. Based on the novel by the same name, "Fifty Shades of Grey" is slated for release on Valentine's Day 2015.

SPRINGFIELD — It’s true, some people cringe and mock when they hear the word "hipster," but not me, because it’s those hipsters who look to the past to bring things I loved back to the forefront with a fresh take.

Poverty is often thought of as something that strikes kids in places like Africa and India. And while that's true, a new study shows that poor American teens might feel the effects of poverty — like violence — as much or more than their counterparts in other places.